Trigonometric Identities

Math 142
The identities listed here refer to trigonometric functions. That is, they do
not include any triangle-related identity (like the Law of Sines, and such).
There is no way we could list all possible identities. In a way, they are
endless. The following list is a selection that covers most common identities.
More can be derived from these, of course.

1 Fundamental Identities
1.1 The really basic ones:
sin x
1. tan x = cos x

2. sin2 x + cos2 x = 1

1.2 Auxiliary functions:

1 cos x
1. cot x = tan x = tan x
1
2. sec x = cos x
1
3. csc x = sin x

Cotangent is sometimes really used for brevity. Secant and cosecant are not
really in common use, except as trivial shorthand for their expression.

1.3 Identities connecting shifted angles

1. cos x = sin − x = sin x + π2 = − sin x − π2
π
2




2. sin x = cos π2 − x = cos x − π2 = − cos x + π2
(these automatically imply similar relations for secant and cosecant)


3. cot x = tan π2 − x


4. tan x = cot π2 − x

More similar identities can be obtained using the sum/subtraction formulas

listed below.

1
1 Fundamental Identities 2

1.4 Periodicity:
1. sin (x + 2π) = sin x
2. cos (x + 2π) = cos x
3. tan (x + π) = tan x

1.5 Odd/even properties

1. sin (−x) = − sin x
2. cos (−x) = cos x
3. tan (−x) = − tan x

1.6 Addition formulas

1. sin (x + y) = sin x cos y + sin y cos x
2. cos (x + y) = cos x cos y − sin x sin y

1.7 From which you get the double formulas:

1. sin 2x = 2 sin x cos x
2. cos 2x = cos2 x − sin2 x
2 Important derived identities 3

2 Important derived identities

A commonly used formula is
1
sec2 x = = 1 + tan2 x
cos2 x
Similarly,
1 1 + tan2 x
csc2 x = =
sin2 x tan2 x
More useful consequences of the above are
1
cos2 x =
1 + tan2 x
tan2 x
sin2 x =
1 + tan2 x
Obviously,
sin2 x sin2 x 1 1
tan2 x = = = =
cos2 x 1 − sin2 x 1
sin2 x −1 csc2 x − 1
1 − cos2 x 1
tan2 x = 2
= − 1 = sec2 x − 1
cos x cos2 x
From the addition formulas and the odd/even properties it is easy to see
that
1. sin (x − y) = sin x cos y − sin y cos x
2. cos (x − y) = cos x cos y + sin x sin y
A little algebra, and the definition of tangent, will yield
tan x+tan y
1. tan (x + y) = 1−tan x tan y
tan x−tan y
2. tan (x − y) = 1+tan x tan y
2 tan x
3. tan 2x = 1−tan2 x
Now a lot of identities follow. For example, the following could easily be derived
by looking at the unit circle, but are even more easily found thanks to the
addition/subtraction formulas.
1. sin (π − x) = sin x
2. cos (π − x) = − cos x
3. tan (π − x) = − tan x
4. sin (π + x) = − sin x
5. cos (π + x) = − cos x
6. tan (π + x) = tan x
We could go on (for instance, looking at 23 π + x, and so on)
3 Less well-known, but still useful identities 4

2.1 Half-angle Formulas

A first type is the following. Note how they are ambiguous, as you need to know
something more (the quadrant where x2 falls) in order to choose the sign.
q
1. sin x2 = ± 1−cos 2
x

q
1+cos x
2. cos x2 = ± 2

The tangent formula is nicer:

sin x 1−cos x
tan x2 = 1+cos x = sin x

2.2 Reverse Half-angle Formulas

The reverse formulas are actually really useful for some specific calculus opera-
tions:
2 tan x
1. sin x = 2
1+tan2 x 2

1−tan2 x
2. cos x = 1+tan2
2
x
2

2 tan x
3. tan x = 2
1−tan2 x 2

3 Less well-known, but still useful identities

First, from the doubling and sum formulas, it is easy to derive formulas for
triple, quadruple, and so on angles. For example:
1. sin 3x = 3 sin x − 4 sin3 x
2. cos 3x = 4 cos3 x − 3 cos x
3 tan x−tan3 x
3. tan 3x = 1−3 tan2 x

Another group of identities is obtained by reading the sum/subtraction formulas

backwards. Although they are less common, it is really good to know they are
there, so you can refer to them when in need (and you might be surprised at
how often this might happen).

3.1 “Product-Sum”
1. sin x + sin y = 2 sin x+y x−y
2 cos 2

2. sin x − sin y = 2 cos x+y x−y

2 sin 2

3. cos x + cos y = 2 cos x+y x−y

2 cos 2

4. cos x − cos y = −2 sin x+y x−y

2 sin 2
4 Inverse Functions, and Special Values 5

3.2 “Product”
sin(x+y)+sin(x−y)
1. sin x cos y = 2

cos(x+y)−cos(x−y)
2. cos x cos y = 2

cos(x−y)−cos(x+y)
3. sin x sin y = 2

Aside: weirdly enough, these product identities were used before logarithms to
perform multiplication. Here’s how you could use the second one. If you
want to multiply u times v, use a table to look up the angle x whose
cosine is u and the angle y whose cosine is v. Look up the cosines of the
sum x + y, and the difference x − y. Average those two cosines. You get
the product uv! Three table look-ups, and computing a sum, a difference,
and an average rather than one multiplication. Tycho Brahe (1546-1601),
among others, used this algorithm known as prosthaphaeresis.

4 Inverse Functions, and Special Values

Recall the following facts about the main trigonometric functions, and their
inverses:
domain range
sin (−∞, ∞)  π 1]
[−1, 
sin−1 [−1, 1] − 2 , π2
cos (−∞, ∞) [−1, 1]
cos−1   [−1, 1] [0, π]
tan x x 6= (2k + 1) 2 , k = 0, ±1, ±2, . . .
 π
(−∞, ∞)

tan−1 (−∞, ∞) − π2 , π2
Also, the following basic reference angle values are commonly assumed to be
obviously known
x 0 π
6
π
4
π
3
π
2
√ √
1 2 3
sin x 0 √2 √2 2 1
3 2 1
cos x 1 √2 2 0
3
√2
tan x 0 3 1 3 undefined